Leisure Systems Event Caps Strong Season

This week’s Leisure Systems Inc. (LSI) Symposium in Covington, Ky., is seeing a “great turnout,” said Dean Crawford, executive vice president for LSI, the franchise company for Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts.

Crawford said 74 of the existing Jellystone parks sent representatives, and a handful of prospective parks were there, too.

Rob Schutter, LSI president, said it was a good year for Jellystone franchisees, with systemwide income up 10% over last year in existing parks and 11% including new parks. “Our occupancy was up a little over 4%,” Schutter said.

The number of cabins continued to grow across the Jellystone system, with 13.6% growth last year, Schutter said. The demand for those continues to grow, since they attract three types of users: People looking for a hotel substitute, people who are campers but don’t own recreational vehicles, and people who are just starting out in the outdoor lifestyle. “We’ve been very strong in continuing the introduction of the full-service-style cabins to the marketplace,” Schutter said, and those attract people with higher incomes who spend more in the parks.

The symposium turnout was high this year, with “meetings completely packed,” Schutter said.

Yogi and Crawford

In addition to sessions on in-park activities, “most of the sessions have had some kind of employment focus,” Schutter said. This year’s sessions included information on regulatory requirements, from I-9 federal forms to Obamacare to the Americans With Disabilities Act rules.

There are 75 vendors at the show. “That’s about average for us,” Crawford said. “There’s a wide variety of vendors here, and it’s just right, about one per campground. Vendors love this show because people are here to buy.”